Bourjois mascara epic fail

I purchased Bourjois' latest mascara offering, "1001 cils, 1001 lashes" a few weeks ago.

Bought it in Boots for (in or around) ten euro, at the special introductory price. Think it's about twelve or so, normally.

At first, I was excited about the product. The white packaging was retro and cool, I'd always liked Bourjois products and found them very good quality (one of the best brands on the high street) plus, the skinny, flexi wand was something I'd never tried.

When it came time to actually use the product, I was disappointed.

The wand was awkward to use. It bent easily so whenever I tried to apply the mascara to my lashes, it would often smudge the product everywhere. It would also catch and pull on my lashes. Ouch!

Then, I found that too much of the product came out on the wand, each time I used it, meaning after just one application, my eyelashes looked gloopy and caked in the stuff!

On top of that, the mascara took ages to dry meaning more smudges! - And whenever it did dry, it seemed to just stick all my lashes together.

Out of all the mascaras I've had (probably about twenty) ... this one was by far the worst. Cosmetics fail!

I wouldn't recommend it to anyone!

Waste of ten euro, really. But no love lost, it's all about trial and error!

If anyone's looking for a good mascara, I'd recommend Benefit's Bad Gal Lash. It's a bit on the pricey side, if you're buying it in Ireland ; 22 euro ... but it's worth every penny!

I particularly love the chunky wand. Really great for getting each and every lash and making your lashes look longer and fuller.

NYC sparkle eye dust

The first product I've chosen to review is, as stated in the title, NYC's sparkle eye dust.

I bought this in Superdrug recently in the shade "pink champagne" (lovely rich gold colour), costing 4.95 (euro).

Usually, I'm a MAC girl when it comes to products for my eyes, but this one was actually surprisingly great.

I say "surprisingly" because I've never been overly impressed with high street brands when it comes to eye shadows - or eye products, in general.

But like I said, this one was great!

Lovely rich pigmentation, very easy to use (comes in a pot with a handy little brush for application), long lasting and obviously, cheap! 1/3 of the price of one MAC eye shadow, to put it in perspective.

The colour is also wonderful. It's ideal as a base colour on the lids when doing the always-in-fashion, smoldering smokey eye look.

I found that the particular shade of eyeshadow really brought out the colour of my eyes as well.

Definitely a keeper and a total bargain! :)

Couldn't be more impressed, to be honest. Here's hoping they don't chose to discontinue the brand - or the "pink champagne" shade. I'm still gutted about Pout cosmetics - and it's been a few years!